What are you using for the devil’s presses? This sounds interesting.
I’ve got a 36kg bell that I’ve done a similar superset scheme for lots of exercises before. Definitely a good way to stoke the hunger.
Very interesting, for whichever reason (I’m leaning towards the diet and insane lifting) it is working very, very well!
Congrats on finishing up beginners man!
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@dagill2 Went with 20lb dumbbells this go round. Just about the right poundage: by the 10th round I was feeling it. 25 will be next.
@boilerman Thanks dude! Lotta variables at play for sure. Also been experimenting with Apple Cider Vinegar, and it’s like creatine: so cheap, you may as well. Got 1 more conditioning workout before I can be officially done, but that’s just cashing the check.
Mowed the lawn for an hour, then did
AM WORKOUT II (1000)
Cannibal Meat Eater
10 rounds of
10 KB swings w/40kg bell
10 devil’s presses w/20lb DBs
1 minute rest between rounds
Time: 23:20
Notes: Like a lot of TB work, this one is sneaky. I thought about running it without rest, but decided to go RX first and see how it went. Fatiguing, but not lung breaking, which I imagine was the goal. Gonna up the weight and maybe do 45 second rests next time, but this is another keeper.
Gonna get in a run with the Mrs in the evening, then Juarez Valley before my early shift tomorrow.
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Do you mind elaborating? How are you using it, exactly? What are your impressions?
I was doing 1 Tbsp in 4 oz of water 15 minutes before every meal, but I dropped that when I stopped measuring/counting. Not sure it did much—but I changed so many things at once to reset, I can’t say for sure. It definitely didn’t hurt, IME.
Don’t mind at all dude.
Much like you, I tend to take it 15 minutes before 2 of my bigger meals (since I’m more a grazer, I have too many “meals” to do this all the time). I also take it either first thing in the morning or right before bed, occasionally doing both. I have capsules and straight ACV. I prefer the latter, mixed with green tea, but use the former when the situation demands.
Hard to say what can and can’t be attributed to the ACV. I’ll say that what I’ve noticed, in general, is that, in the few/rare instances that I DO eat a pure carb source (these days it tends to be curly fries when out with the family), I feel like my muscles just soak it up and I tend to show up the next day better defined and bigger. Part of that is I’m typically in a glycogen depleted state as it is, but I don’t tend to see any “spillover”, which may be speaking to how improved my insulin sensitivity is.
I don’t ever claim to be a nutrition dude, as I got straight Ds in all my hard science courses, but just from the little bit I keep seeing from dudes I enjoy hearing from, the low carb approach tends to be suited for endomorphic types like myself, as our insulin sensitivity tends to be garbage. I know I tend to respond poorly to carbs, and this has made things far better. It’s also interesting that Jon Andersen and I have pretty much the exact same “origin story” as late bloomer fat kids, and, in turn, why we are both drawn to the same diet. He’s also very nordic, and I believe I have a similar bloodline, and I think there’s something to be said there.
While going off on a tangent: my bottomless meat appetite still showed through on that 2lb ribeye I ate, because I was scrapping flesh off the bone with my knife and still looking for more meat when I was done. I am not sure WHAT my limit is, but I know that WASN’T it. But give me a potato and I’m done for the day.
THAT said…digesting 2lbs of ribeye eaten in one sitting isn’t terribly fun, but things seem back to normal. Digestion has actually been awesome ever since going on my work trip. I think 7 days of eating the exact same thing had something of a “clense” effect and got me back to a good baseline.
Thanks for the details, man. I’d say my experience with ACV is similar.
And this is me, for sure—I wasn’t exactly a fat kid (not by contemporary standards, and definitely not by today’s standards), but I’ve never really been lean either, not even as a young’n.
Anyway, your mention of ACV reminded me that it’s probably worth reintroducing sometime soon. And the creatine, too, for that matter.
Thanks again for your thoughts here—I appreciate your perspective.
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I had a quick 2 week stint of ACV use, I didn’t totally understand the point of using it (and honestly, still don’t) and the same with creatine. I always assumed due to the amount of red meat I eat creatine would be pointless for me to take… But maybe I will try it…like you said, it can’t hurt.
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Listened to this today, might be of interest?
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@boilerman You may very well eat enough red meat to avoid creatine. You put it away real well, haha. But it has so many benefits it’s worth using.
@boyce79 Thanks dude! I’ll give it a listen at work.
PM WORKOUT (1730)
3 mile run with the Mrs
Good way to wrap up the day
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DEEP WATER BEGINNER, Week 6 Workout 5 (FINAL)
AM WORKOUT (0307 natural wake up)
Juarez Valley Front Squats 225 (100kg) w/six count burpees between sets
15 (lifetime rep PR)
1
13
2
11*
3
9*
4
7
5
6
Time: 24:28
Transition immediately to
Daily Work EMOM w/4 KB swings w/40kg bell for buy in each round
15 rounds
Belt squat stripset (no rest/lockout)
31x150
5x125
4x100
5x75
4x50
7x25
5xAxle
Notes: Starting the workout off with a lifetime PR was pretty clutch, especially since I had at least 1 more in the tank. Cut it short simply because, with the Juarez Valley workout, every extra rep is another set, and I knew I was already signing myself up for a long one at 15. This means I’ve doubled the reps and added 40lbs since starting this protocol: pretty nuts. This is where I really see myself shinning. Amazingly, this felt rough from the start, but I just kept digging and finding more reps. Whole workout was a total lung breaker.
Once I got to the EMOM stuff, I really started overheating. Garage temps are getting high.
Got Tang Soo Do later tonight, and I think I may call that my additional workout for today, although there’s always room for a little 4 minute dude, so we’ll see.
DW Beginner is done. Thinking of jumping straight to intermediate tomorrow. Got family coming into town soon, so schedule continues to be compressed.
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Congrats
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Thanks dude! Always been a garbage front squatter, so it’s cool to watch it grow. I’ve noticed that, whenever I add in a front squat workout and focus on growing it, my whole body gets bigger. Same with daily work. Adding the two to hypertrophy phases has been huge for me.
I’m with you. Front squats feel a lot better on my back too. Less stress on back and more hypertrophy gains → sign me up.
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Oh, don’t get me wrong: I don’t REPLACE any sort of squatting with front squats. I just add them on top, haha.
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Probably the reason your body changes faster than the rest of us mere mortals
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N=1 observation: when I do a front squat session and a back squat session weekly, my back squat gets stronger.
@cyclonengineer When you scare the body, you get a scary body, haha.
@dagill2 Those and the belt squats really seem to have done the trick for me. My theory is that my posterior chain was just about maxed out from deads and strongman work while my quads were the limiter, and now that they’ve caught up I’ve been able to tap back into that PC. And as much as I RELLY dig the SSB front squat, it seems like the barbell is king for driving progress. PLUS, the new scars and alligator skin I have on my front delts and collarbone looks cool. So I got that going for me, which is nice.
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@boyce79 Thanks for the recommendation. Listened to it at work. Fascinating stuff. It’s a little frustrating as a strongman athlete to be left out of the dialogue when people say “strength athletes”, because all they focused on was weightlifting and powerlifting and talking about hitting a top single, but still some good info in there. Funny to me how my experience keeping carbs low just doesn’t match what I keep hearing.
With Deep Water Intermediate looming, wanted to get some ideas down.
Planning on doing 176 for push press and 156 for strict press, which would be a calculated “80%” based off previous used numbers. For squat and deads, I’m just picking something challenging. Thinking 350 on squats and 405 on deads. As it stands, the weights my previous workouts used calculate to total fantasies as far as 1rm goes, so I’m trying to keep this on the reasonable level.
As far as cleans go, I’ve got a few ideas. One is bodyweight on the bar and using a barbell, but I’m also not against using the axle or the log. Considering the cleans are done every week, part of me is thinking of alternating implements, and having barbell be a staple and then rotate between axle and log on the other week. Some room to play on that. I may be pulling the cleans off mats vs the floor anyway for the sake of not making a ton of noise first thing in the morning, so I’m already cheating there.
Diet will remain the same. Good digestion has ceased, so I need to see what is different at home vs when I was away. There’s a few things I suspect, so I’m gonna try eliminating them and seeing what happens.
Still gonna mash myself with conditioning. It seems to be working well.
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Question, what’s your weight at (no worries if you don’t want to say)?
FYI, Jon Anderson is on Mark Bell’s Power Project Podcast today.
I always thought strongman competitors were more impressive than powerlifters due to the nature of having to lift odd stuff. To me, a heavy atlas stone lift is way more interesting to watch than even a 700+lb deadlift. The Hercules hold is another favorite.
I have no idea, haha. I haven’t weighed myself for real since Oct. Since that time, I’ve weighed myself like 3 or 4 times at the end of the day as something of a curiosity, but I have no real awareness of my bodyweight. I’d GUESS I’m in the mid to high 180s, based on how my belt and clothes are fitting. I’m a pant size below my mid 190s size, and my belt is a notch tighter than is typical.
Good to know about Jon on the podcast. I’m willing to suffer through Mark Bell for that, haha.
Concur on the strength athlete front. It’s why I made the switch. Powerlifting was boring enough to compete in, let alone watch. I love how much more I can “will” a victory in strongman too.
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